Skip to main content

Water was present in our solar system before the sun formed

You might assume that there has always been water on Earth — that water was there from the very beginning when our planet formed. But scientists increasingly think that water on Earth may have originated elsewhere, and been carried here by comets. However, the water in the comets had to come from somewhere, and astronomers recently made a discovery which could shed light on how that water was found in the solar system.

The researchers used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), a radio telescope array in Chile, to study a planet-forming disc around the star V883 Orionis, looking for water there to see how it would be transported as the disk evolves into planets.

This artist’s impression shows the planet-forming disc around the star V883 Orionis. In the outermost part of the disc water is frozen out as ice and therefore can’t be easily detected. An outburst of energy from the star heats the inner disc to a temperature where water is gaseous, enabling astronomers to detect it. The inset image shows the two kinds of water molecules studied in this disc: normal water, with one oxygen atom and two hydrogen atoms, and a heavier version where one hydrogen atom is replaced with deuterium, a heavy isotope of hydrogen.
This artist’s impression shows the planet-forming disc around the star V883 Orionis. The inset image shows the two kinds of water molecules studied in this disc: normal water, with one oxygen atom and two hydrogen atoms, and a heavier version where one hydrogen atom is replaced with deuterium, a heavy isotope of hydrogen. ESO/L. Calçada

They were able to compare two different types of water, the one that has one oxygen atom and two hydrogen atoms that we know well, and the other, which is a heavier type of water that has one oxygen, one hydrogen, and one deuterium (a stable isotope of hydrogen) atom. These types of water form differently, so scientists can use the ratio of normal to heavy water as a fingerprint to see how old the water is and where it comes from.

This is important because the water in V883 Orionis’s disk has similar properties to the water seen in our solar system. “V883 Orionis is the missing link in this case,” said lead researcher John J. Tobin of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, in a statement.

“The composition of the water in the disc is very similar to that of comets in our own solar system. This is confirmation of the idea that the water in planetary systems formed billions of years ago, before the sun, in interstellar space, and has been inherited by both comets and Earth, relatively unchanged.”

This evidence suggests that water was around in the region of space that would become the solar system before the planets and star even formed. “We can now trace the origins of water in our Solar System to before the formation of the sun,” said Tobin.

Next, the researchers want to use the upcoming Extremely Large Telescope to look for other planet-forming disks and see how water moves through the disks as planets form.

The research is published in the journal Nature.

Editors' Recommendations

Georgina Torbet
Georgina is the Digital Trends space writer, covering human space exploration, planetary science, and cosmology. She…
See the 42 biggest asteroids in our solar system in stunning detail
Forty-two of the largest objects in the asteroid belt, located between Mars and Jupiter (orbits not to scale).

Far out on the border of the outer solar system between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter lies the asteroid belt, where hundreds of thousands of small objects orbit the sun. Most of these objects are small rocky asteroids, but some are known to be 60 miles or larger across. Now, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) has released images of 42 of the largest asteroids in the belt, showing their variety of sizes and shapes.

The asteroids were imaged using ESO's Very Large Telescope, marking the most detailed observation of many of these bodies to date. They include well-known bodies like the dwarf planet Ceres, the metal asteroid Psyche, and asteroid Vesta, which was visited by NASA's Dawn spacecraft in 2011. But they also include lesser-known oddities like the bone-shaped Kleopatra or the flattened, elongated Sylvia.

Read more
There’s a weird asteroid shaped like a bone whipping around our sun
These eleven images are of the asteroid Kleopatra, viewed at different angles as it rotates. The images were taken at different times between 2017 and 2019 with the Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch (SPHERE) instrument on ESO’s VLT. Kleopatra orbits the Sun in the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter. Astronomers have called it a “dog-bone asteroid” ever since radar observations around 20 years ago revealed it has two lobes connected by a thick “neck”.

Astronomers have gotten their closest look yet at an unusually shaped asteroid orbiting the sun in the asteroid belt located between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars.

The strange asteroid, named Kleopatra, was recently imaged in the most detail to date using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT). The image below shows the asteroid from different angles, revealing its two lobes linked by a center portion with an overall shape like a bone.

Read more
Beyond our solar system, Voyager 1 picks up the hum of interstellar gas
The Voyager spacecraft continue to make discoveries even as they travel through interstellar space. In a new study, University of Iowa physicists report on the Voyagers' detection of cosmic ray electrons associated with eruptions from the sun--more than 14 billion miles away.

In this artist's depiction, the Voyager 1 craft continues to cruise through interstellar space. NASA/JPL-Caltech

The two most distant man-made objects in the universe are the Voyager probes, launched in the 1970s. The probes zipped through our solar system and eventually passed out into the interstellar space beyond,. And in a remarkable feat of engineering, even though they are over 40 years old, they are still working and collecting important scientific data.

Read more